How Safe is Pet Food?

Is pet food actually as safe as we are told? Is pet food safe for consumers to bring into their homes, safe for children to handle?

The FDA states: “The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) requires that all animal foods, like human foods, be safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, contain no harmful substances, and be truthfully labeled.”

Even though federal law (the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act) requires numerous regulations to be enforced for pet food, FDA does not enforce The Act in its entirety. The agency picks and chooses which laws they will enforce, allowing the pet food industry privileges to violate law – penalty free and unknown to most pet food consumers. The biggest violation (of law and violation of consumers) is the FDA allowing diseased, rotting, putrid meats and vegetables to be processed into pet food – without disclosing ingredient quality (lack of quality) to consumers.

And pet food consumers also have smaller concerns in pet food. Not the major ingredients, the supplements and the denaturing agents used on those big violators (diseased, rotting meat). Are they safe for our pets to consume day in and day out over a lifetime?

We start with public information to the known risk of some pet food ingredients for human exposure. For people who work in a pet food manufacturing plant, the company is required to provide ‘Material Safety Data Sheets‘ on each ingredient, supplement, flavoring, dye – that comes into the plant. These Material Safety Data Sheets – known as MSDS’s – are used to provide workers information – such as toxicity data – to the ‘materials’ they are being exposed to in the workplace. As a general rule, MSDS are not intended for use by consumers – the documents are geared towards providing information for employees working with the materials.

Material Safety Data information is based on scientific research on the particular ingredient/chemical/material. And, as we all know, most risk assessment scientific research is performed on animals. But…it is important to note – the risk assessment provided in MSDS’s are for direct exposure of a particular ingredient to a human. In other words, MSDS’s do not provide information if the ingredient becomes ‘no risk’ when it it processed into pet food and/or if the risk remains the same (as stated on the MSDS’s) once processed into a pet food. All we know is that some ingredients commonly used in pet food pose a significant risk to employees exposed to them – risks when the ingredients are ingested.

Below you will find MSDS information on several common pet food ingredients.

Material Safety Data Sheet (risk to humans exposed to this pet food ingredient) – Sodium selenite“Potential Acute Health Effects: Very hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of eye contact (irritant), of ingestion, of inhalation. Severe over-exposure can result in death. Potential Chronic Health Effects: The substance may be toxic to blood, kidneys, liver, skin, central nervous system (CNS). Repeated or prolonged exposure to the substance can produce target organs damage. Repeated exposure to a highly toxic material may produce general deterioration of health by an accumulation in one or many human organs.”

“Although allergic reaction is possible, there is no known toxicity associated with high doses of the phylloquinone (vitamin K1) or menaquinone (vitamin K2) forms of vitamin K (20). The same is not true for synthetic menadione (vitamin K3) and its derivatives. Menadione can interfere with the function of glutathione, one of the body’s natural antioxidants, resulting in oxidative damage to cell membranes. Menadione given by injection has induced liver toxicity, jaundice, and hemolytic anemia (due to the rupture of red blood cells) in infants; therefore, menadione is no longer used for treatment of vitamin K deficiency.”

The Dog Food Project quotes Michael von Lüttwitz and Herbert Schulz article “Vitamin K3: eine Geissel im Gesundheitssektor?” [Vitamin K3: a scourge in the health sector?]: “When food contains menadione, every owner and breeder has to make the decision for himself whether he can take responsibility for giving his dog a substance that is not permitted in the [human] food sector and led to permanent damage and deaths in humans.”

Note: No information found of risk to cats – it is assumed to be the same risk. Pet food regulations require menadione sodium bisulfite to be the ONLY vitamin K source for a fish based cat food. There is no other vitamin K source approved (regulations) for a fish based cat food.

From “Chronic Selenium Poisoning in Dogs and its Prevention by Arsenic“: “A study of chronic selenium poisoning in dogs has been made using a basic ration high in grain. As little as 7.2 parts per million of selenium in the ration in the natural form and 10 parts per million as added sodium selenite were toxic as shown by sub-normal growth and restricted food intake.”

“Twenty parts per million of selenium as added sodium selenite induced refusal of food and death in a very short time; and in the natural form this amount of selenium produced severe nervous disorders.”

“The pathological symptoms of chronic selenium poisoning are described. The liver and spleen were the organs most severely affected. Severe ascites occurred in many cases. This was accompanied by extreme dilatation of blood vessels in the abdominal cavity.”

Note: Selenium toxicity is applicable to all animal species.

Copper Sulfate: The MSDS stated “The substance may be toxic to kidneys, liver. Repeated or prolonged exposure to the substance can produce target organs damage.”

Similar to a liver disease in dogs – Copper Storage Hepatopathy in Dogs – a few veterinarians are taking note of liver failure in dogs consuming pet food containing the supplement copper sulfate. Practicing veterinarian Dr. Pete VanVranken lost his own dog he firmly believes is linked to copper sulfate – the dog’s liver “contained more than 2,000 parts per million of copper.“It should have been under 300,” he said. “Actually, it should have been between 50 and 60.”

PetMD.com states“Primary copper liver diseases (medically referred to as hepatopathies) generally fall into one of three categories:

Subclinical disease: a condition where the disease is present in the organ or body, but not detectable by abnormal signs or changes in the dog

Acute (sudden) disease which most frequently affects young dogs; associated with a condition that causes the death of liver tissue (hepaticnecrosis)

Chronic progressive disease in which symptoms are often observed in middle-aged and older dogs with chronic hepatitis, with damage and scarring of the liver (cirrhosis)”

Note: Copper sulfate is currently only being examined as a risk to dogs. It is unknown if the same risk occurs for cats.

“BHA induces in animals tumours of the forestomach, which are dose dependent, whereas BHT induces liver tumours in long-term experiments. Because there is no indication of genotoxicity of BHA and BHT, all published findings agree with the fact that BHA and BHT are tumour promoters.”

Note: It is unknown what the long term risk is to pets consuming any denaturing agent. To learn more about all of the accepted denaturing agents used in pet food read Mollie Morrissette’s post – Click Here.

My biggest question…if these ingredients are known risk of ingestion to humans, based on scientific research performed on animals, and “prolonged exposure to the substance can produce target organs damage”, has anyone at FDA or AAFCO ever considered the health risks to pets ingesting these ingredients every meal, everyday of their life? No…no they have not.

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Comment10

barbara m.
Apr 14, 2016

I’m glad that you brought up the subject of the potential hazards to humans as well as pets, of exposure to pet foods. Little is known of what really goes on inside the manufacturing plants, (as well as rendering plants). Thanks also for giving the link to Mollie Morrissette’s website, Poisoned Pets, that she did almost 2 years ago, called Pet Food’s Darkest Secret, “Chemically denatured condemned and inedible material”. If someone buys commercial pet food, whether premium or grocery store fair, this is an eye opener.

But especially disturbing is that the FDA does not enforce the regulations for the FFCDA that you mentioned for the safety of humans or pets, and that they can cherry-pick what laws they want to enforce. As you say, “FDA does not enforce The Act in its entirety.”

Hello Susan,
What would we furry parents do without you??? I never want to find out! I am going right now to check our canned dog food, Merrick, for these items you have listed. We feed Stella & Chewy’s & Primal freeze dried raw for breakfast to our rescue dog, Miss Kitty, every day. We have been feeding her Merrick canned dog food for dinner every day, but we are stopping that today! Some of them have carrageenan in the ingredients, so we stopped feeding her those flavors. Now, we are stopping the canned food altogether. It is not worth it. Even though Merrick supposedly has a good reputation, who’s to say, what they are putting in their products? Not worth the chance of our precious furry child getting sick. From now on it’s going to be homemade in combo with her breakfast foods she now gets.

You are TOTALLY AMAZING!!! Tireless in your efforts to protect our furry children! Thank you for all you do, all the time!!!

Thank you for this valuable information, Susan. Between contaminated food for both animals and their people and every other bad and corrupt thing we see happening everywhere, it is easy to become discouraged. You are such a bright light in an ever-increasing dark world. I don’t know how you do it.

I suppose we should ask FDA why these ingredients, and the decaying meat ingredients, after heating, are not allowed for human consumption, after all, the regulations apply equally to both humans and animals, as written.

“Mind blown”… and I will never understand why pet food (and human) is made with such horrific ingredients. Whatever happened to good ol’ meat, good meat, from “healthy” animals, if you go that root. I am just going to make my own. So disgusting when you read the lists of actual carcinogenics that are in there!!!!!! I have had cancer and even tho’ I went the chemo and radiation route, if I knew what I know now, I may have done that differently too.
Thank you Susan for everything you do! My pets thank you every day!!
Victoria, BC
Canada

This is terrible – these people are paid by OUR tax dollars and are supposed to work for us and our pets yet they continually flaunt their ability to do whatever they please. Breaking the law isn’t allowed if I do it, why are they able to – just because they are a government agency? Do we have to sue the government just to get them to follow the law? And how long would a law suit take while pets continue to die? Thank you, Susan and your team, for continually trying to get some satisfaction for the millions of pet owners. I can’t imagine going up against them as you continue to do except that in small steps you are making a difference.